Crowdfunding meteorite searching in the Australian Nullarbor Plain

Crowdfunding meteorite searching in the Australian Nullarbor Plain

In “[meteorite-list] Crowdfunding meteorite searching in
the Nullarbor Plain” on March 3, 2015, Robin Whittle wrote:

“Here is an article about Australian researchers who
no longer can get government funding, and so are
turning to crowdfunding to support their expeditions.
They claim to have found more than 20% of Australia's
recorded meteorites.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-03/meteorite-hunting-scientists-inundated-with-public-support/6269762 “

Another article is “Crowd-funding and meteorite
hunting – a success story!” at
http://oncirculation.com/2015/03/03/crowd-funding-and-meteorite-hunting-a-success-story/

Robin continued;

“My wife Tina and I visited the coastal part of the
Nullarbor Plain in the winter of 2010. It is a limestone
surface which was a sea bed roughly 12 million years
old, according to the "middle Miocene" description at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_Plain “

A PDF file that summarizes the geology of the
Nullarbor Plain is:

Webb, J., 2002, Nullarbor Field Trip Excursion
Guide.10th Australia and New Zealand
Geomorphology Group Conference September-
October 2002, Department of Earth Sciences,
La Trobe University, Victoria 3086
http://www.anzgg.org/scanned-publications
http://www.anzgg.org/ANZGG%2010%202002%20Nullarbor%20fieldtrip.pdf

The limestone deposits underlying the Nullarbor Plain
represent four periods of innudation. The first was in
middle-late Eocene. At this time, almost the entire
Nullarbor Plain was covered by relatively quiet, shallow,
and cool marine waters in which up to 300 meters of
limestone (Wilson Bluff Limestone) accumulated. In the
early Oligocene, the marine waters completely retreated
and later return during the late Oligocene. Between late
Oligocene to early Miocene, about 100 meters of
Abrakurrie Limestone accumulated. Then marine waters
briefly retreated and exposed the Nullarbor Plain again
at the end of the early Miocene. Later during both the
early Miocene and middle Miocene, the Nullarbor Plain
was twice innudated and less than 20 meters of
Nullarbor Limestone accumulated over much of the
Nullarbor Plain. The marine waters finally retreated
about 14 million years ago and the Nullarbor Plain has
been high, dry, and accumulating meteorites for the
past 14 million years.

Go see:

Drexel, J. F., and W. V. Preiss, eds., 1995, The
geology of South Australia. Volume 2, The
Phanerozoic: Geological Survey of South
Australia Bulletin. vol. 54, 347 p.

Yours,

Paul H.